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This article examines the debate in Germany on Article 219a of the criminal law, which prohibits doctors from advertising for abortions. This ban prevents advertising for abortions on the grounds that it would be offensive, while defining 'advertising' so broadly that it prevents doctors from publicly providing any information about abortions. The article offers an overview of the law, as well as the controversy following the conviction of General Practitioner Kristina Hänel, which led to a reform of the law. The curtailment of the provision of factual information by medical professionals is contrasted with the freedom of speech protection given to highly offensive speech acts by anti-abortion activists. The argument is made that there is a Christian perfectionism at the heart of the law on abortion in Germany that is shared by anti-abortion activists, leading to a situation that facilitates the mobilisation of anti-abortion sentiment while curtailing the freedom of speech of doctors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces broad strands of research on swearing as a foundation for an interpersonal pragmatics (IP) approach to the nature and effects of swearing in interaction and relationships. The main tenets of interpersonal pragmatics are presented, and swearing as a distinct research focus within IP is outlined. The article invokes pragmatic perspectives in addressing both negative and positive functions of swearing. The central focus on IP is developed by considering the mutual interplay between language and relationships in swearing activity. With respect to communicative context, it is noted that swearing both emerges within interpersonal relationships, and simultaneously provides a context for different types of interpersonal relationships to unfold (endogenous vs. exogenous IP perspectives). By way of introducing the special issue on swearing and interpersonal pragmatics and the constituent articles, it asserts the need to account for swearing as an interpersonal pragmatic strategy and to analyse the causes and effects of swearing in different contexts. The article concludes with a discussion of future research directions, including, in particular, swearing in mediated settings. • Swearing is discursively distinctive and psychologically powerful. • Interpersonal functions of swearing highlight mutual effects of language and relationships. • Positive and negative functions of swearing work in tandem to maintain swearing as highly nuanced and adaptable. • Interpersonal pragmatics emerges as a central strand of present and future swearing research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the interplay of offence, (de)normalization and moral conflict triggered by media racism. The paper is premised on the assumption that public interventions to moral transgressions occasion moral conflicts in which transgressions can be (de)normalized through impoliteness, more specifically the acts of offence taking and causing. A YouTube video discussing the racist media coverage of the Ukrainian refugee crisis was analyzed along with a sizable amount of related user-generated comments. The analysis showed that offence taking and offence causing have morally restorative and (de)normalizing functions in moral conflict. This highlights the fact that the relationship between morality and impoliteness is much more complex than is usually theorized, wherein impoliteness is often perceived as a morally norm-disruptive behavior or a negatively valenced evaluation thereof. Not only can impoliteness be morally justified in moral conflicts, it can also be a necessary form of restorative public intervention. This necessitates greater attention to (de)normalization in (im)politeness theorizing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While online hate speech is a perennial problem of modern times, there is still a lack of academic research on the topic. This could be attributed to the fact that hate speech does not always have clearly distinguishable linguistic features. As such, hate speech could well be communicated covertly. Consequently, and in order to better understand the phenomenon of 'covertly communicated' hate speech, one would need to first investigate the overarching thematic and discursive patterns in which hate speech is rooted. This study is a step in this direction. Assisted by a corpus-informed pragmatic analysis of hate language on Instagram , it focuses on hate language directed at Afghan immigrants in Iran, a rarely explored context involving one of the world's most widespread population movements and displacement patterns. The findings of the study lay bare the fact that, in the corpus under investigation, overt expressions of hate were few and far between, to the extent that they did not have meaningful salience in the data. In this respect, the study indicates how a number of recurring discursive patterns provide the foundation on which covert ways of expressing hate are based. • Provides a corpus-assisted analysis of hate language as found on Instagram. • Focuses on an underexplored context involving Afghan immigrants. • Reveals that hate speech may lack markedly hateful language. • Reveals that hate language may revolve around covert ways of expressing hatred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various scholars have studied the increasing occurrence of toxic, often large-scale arguments over allegedly offensive behaviour in both public and private discourse arenas. However, what is meant by offence itself is rarely discussed at length in linguistics and communication studies, and little systematic work has been dedicated to how offence is taken and reported on across different contexts and in different modes of communication. The aims of this special issue are to examine how interactants and observers of interaction take offence across different communicative settings and sociocultural contexts, to consider the moral and relational implications of taking or reporting offence, and to highlight what a pragmatics-based perspective can add to research on offence and its relationship with morality. • Shows how people take offence across different settings and sociocultural contexts. • Examines the moral and relational implications of taking offence. • Scrutinises the relationship between offence and morality. • Discusses what a pragmatics perspective brings to research on offence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public shaming of private figures in everyday settings is amplified through posting denunciations on social media platforms. The aim of this paper is to understand how the conduct of individuals targeted for online public shaming is not only construed as transgressive, but as warranting public denunciation in the first place through posting denunciations of their conduct on social media platforms. Public incivilities in encounters between strangers in public settings are discursively positioned as denounceable through framing that conduct as morally transgressive, which thereby legitimises public denunciation. However, because framing public conduct as transgressive necessarily involves selecting elements from a particular scene for public inspection and evaluation, public denunciations of public incivilities are always open to contestation. • Public incivilities occur in encounters between strangers in public settings. • Public denunciation of public incivilities can occur in situ or online. • Conduct is framed as morally transgressive through online public denunciations. • Online public denunciations of public incivilities are always open to contestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, quite effective systems have been formed in the world to combat and prevent customs crimes in general and by customs authorities, however, the experience of not all states is positive. The article, based on the analysis of the scientific views of scholars, summarizes the experience of the leading European countries (on the example of Great Britain, France, Germany) in the field of preventing and combating crime by customs authorities. Both positive and negative aspects of the experience in the field of combating crime in these countries are singled out. The analysis of foreign experience in preventing and combating crime by customs authorities made it possible to formulate the following points that should be used by the domestic legislator: firstly, a high level of material, technical and financial support of the customs authorities, which makes it possible to more quickly respond to existing challenges; secondly, the customs authorities of the vast majority of countries have a wide range of powers in the context of the implementation of intelligence operations; thirdly, a high level of interaction and exchange of information between the EU countries in the framework of combating customs crime; fourthly, an important aspect of combating and preventing customs crime is the professional training of customs personnel; fifthly, on the example of foreign countries in Ukraine, it was expedient to strengthen administrative and criminal liability for violation of customs legislation; sixth, a high level of social and financial support for customs employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With social media taking stand-up routines beyond their hitherto localised environments, there is growing irritation and backlash against comedians who supposedly tell unpleasant (or offensive) jokes. The ensuing decontextualisation creates a crisis wherein new media enables the kind of viewership that is less participatory, and thus more critical. As a result, jokes which ordinarily are framed within liminal moments of permissibility are increasingly exposed to various sensitivities and appraisals where they are evaluated by political correctness measures other than suspension of offence. This essay assesses the acts of Basket Mouth and Trevor Noah for the adaptive mechanics they deploy towards countering shifting cognitions arising from the transposition of stand-up routines from what used to be localised arenas to more global spaces. My inquiry interrogates newer ways in which the target comedians navigate the treacherous terrain of laughter evocation through anticipatory acts of self-censorship that work for both their immediate and mediatised audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how the interconnections between morality, aggression, and social activism are discursively articulated in two data sets: a face-to-face sport controversy and a corpus of evaluative online comments in response to reports of said controversy. The study adopted a combined transmedia, critical, and intersectional perspective that revealed the divergent interpretations of the controversy as an aggression that threatened the moral or a case of activism in defense of the moral. Thus, competing moral and social frameworks were found to lie behind social division and suggested the need for intersectional awareness and critical views on the complex and unstable distinctions between causing and taking offence and between the roles of transgressor/offender and victim/offended. • Transmedia study of morality and offence in offline and online interactions. • Intersectionality was essential to explain moral and social division and contestation. • Reinstating communal moral orders has different meanings for different social groups. • Moral principles did not take precedence over social principles. • Taking/causing offence and transgressor/victim roles were unstable distinctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses theoretical and methodological issues central to the study of insults (realised ad hoc or as rituals) on social media. After revisiting the well-entrenched but problematic distinction between personal insults and ritual insults , a proposal is made to distinguish between genuine insults , which are intended to offend the target (whether or not conveying truthful messages), and jocular insults , which are devoid of this intent and orientated towards collective humour experience. Additionally, the subcategory humorous genuine insult is put forward in order to capture the practice based on wittily formulated but purposefully offensive messages commonplace especially in multi-party interactions, such as those available to multiple receivers on social media. Assigning insults to these categories rests on conjecturing language users' underlying intentions, which is a fraught task, particularly with regard to social media data. In order to accomplish it, the form and content, as well as various micro- and macro-contextual cues, need to be taken into account, as illustrated with a sample of insults taken from James Bunt's Twitter and remediatised Jimmy Kimmel's Mean Tweets. An analysis of the two practices on social media also indicates the epistemic uncertainty of insults, as well as the shifts between different insults occurring in one interactional space. • Critical overview of the standard personal vs ritual insults dichotomy. • Divergent intentions underlie genuine and jocular insults, but both may be humorous. • Speaker intentions sought in several micro-and macro-contextual cues. • Both insult categories on social media are occasioned ad hoc or in rituals. • Epistemological ambiguity underlies (some) insults on social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the world, the concern of governments to maintain public safety necessitated a reform for reorienting the police organisations to shift from conducting its functions through the incidence driven approach to community participation model. In Nigeria, the reactive model adopted appeared not effective in taming the internal insecurity across the country as crime upheaval is increasing daily. This paper examined the effects of community policing on police statutory functions in Nigeria. Data were collected from relevant textbooks, journals, newspapers and other official records. The data congregated were analysed through descriptive method. Espousing the broken window theory as theoretical framework, community policing is considered as a proactive crime and disorder reducing strategy as against the 'pursue and catch' reactive oriented. The paper found community policing as helpful to curbing internal security threats in Nigeria. It argued that the effectiveness of community policing is overturned by gamut of the police different operational agenda; inconsistency in policy; and resistance from some officers and rank and files. The paper recommended that the police statutory functions of curbing insecurity in Nigeria would remain a daydream without active community policing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amritsar is famous for its landscape of shrines. Recent urban redevelopments have emphasised a closer connection between the city and Sikhism. The recently inaugurated Heritage Street creates focal points in space that visually highlight this connection. Heritage Street forefronts an inclusive view of Sikhism that eclipses historical and political communal tensions and overwrites acts of offence. The dialogue between shrines and the movements of pilgrims and visitors through redeveloped spaces questions the architectured text of Heritage Street to present a parallel, if not competing, view of what heritage might mean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the non-aggressive aftermath of an alleged iconoclasm in a residential neighbourhood of Kanpur. The 'iconoclasts' were recent converts to Christianity who were attempting to mark their departure from Hinduism by dismantling the deity tiles on their house. Despite the indignation this caused among their Hindu neighbours, not much ensued. While the lack of escalation may be easy to explain given the local circumstances, this article pays particular attention to how the anger of the denouncer subsided and the role of her growing knowledge about Christianity therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the difference between offender female patients (OFS) and non-offender female patients (NOFS) with schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD).The patients in this study were admitted to the university psychiatry in Zurich Switzerland between 1982 and 2016. Demography, psychopathology, comorbidity, and treatment differences were analyzed using binary statistics to compare 31 OFS and 29 matching NOFS with SSD. The Fisher‘s exact test was used for categorical data variables in small size samples and the Mann-Whitney-U-Test for nonparametric test variables, adjusted with the Benjamini and Hochberg method.The results indicate that the NOFS were cognitively more impaired, they were more likely to have had antipsychotic drugs prescribed (NOFS; 100%, OFS: 71%, OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.13-1.77, p=0.022) and their medication compliance was higher (NOFS: 84.6%, OFS: 4.5%, OR 0.09, 95% CI 0.00-0.08, p=0.000). In contrast, the OFS had completed compulsory school less often and the were observed to be more often homeless and socially isolated (OFS: 72.4%, NOFS: 34.6%, OR 4.96, 95% CI 1.58-15.6, p=0.026), self-disorders (OFS: 51.6%, NOFS: 11.1%, OR 8.53, 95% CI 2.12-34.32, p=0.011), delusions (OFS: 96.8%, NOFS: 63%, OR 17.65, 95% CI 2.08-149.99, p=0.014) and substance use disorder (51.6%, OR 0.27, 95% CI 0.09-0.85, p=0.039). Clinicians treating female offender patients with SSD should focus more on the treatment for substance use disorder, medication and early recognition of the illness for preventative purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental health disorders and violence have both been identified as major public health problems. Comprehensive assessment of their causes and the understanding of their complex interconnections are of great importance for prevention. The purpose of this review is to highlight the factors associated with violence in major psychiatric disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In December 2004, the staging of Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's play Behzti at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre triggered protests by some members of the Sikh community who considered it offensive. By unearthing and exploring tensions in the play's representation of a Sikh community, this article sheds light on some of the tensions in multicultural Britain in order to complicate and challenge an interpretation of the dispute in terms of a reductive binary of creative freedom versus religious censure and censorship. While, for the liberal secularist critic and proponent of free expression, the explosion of taboos is vital to an expansion of freedom, a hard-line adoption of this position that fails to account for the material specificities of a religious response to a creative work, including the demography of the protestors, can result in a curtailment of the freedom of a religious minority. Reading the play in dialogue with the controversy it generated, this article seeks to ground the outbreak of religious minority offence in its local material conditions and, by doing so, to underline the unequal access to social, cultural, and spatial capital that shaped the controversy. It focuses in particular on religious symbols, space, and speech, exploring how they figure in both the literary and social texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression is one of the leading diseases worldwide. Its symptoms are of great importance for a variety of areas within internal medicine, as patients often pay a visit to their general practitioners first. Although symptoms of depression are observed in both genders, existing peculiarities of the symptoms in men are only insufficiently known or acknowledged. Therefore, we dedicate this article to the concept of male depression, which can be characterized by social withdrawal, irritability or substance abuse. Here, we present practice-related associations between depression and violent behavior, which will be illustrated by two case studies. Of particular relevance is the so-called suicidal-homicidal syndrome, which should make further psychiatric, if not forensic-psychiatric evaluation mandatory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capital punishment is the supreme punishment that can be pronounced by any judicial officer, not only in India even in any other country of the world. It's not an innovation of present time means this punishment used to given to the culprits in ancient times too, but the methods of execution of such punishment were barbarous in nature at that time, and nowadays we have adopted a much-civilized method for the execution of death penalty, even though there are so many human rights organizations and committees who claim that the present practicing method of the execution of death penalty in India is painful and any other method should be adopted. in the international community, it is a subject matter of debate since a long time ago that the death penalty should be abolished and any alternative punishment should be given instead of capital punishment, resulted in many of the countries abolishing this punishment from their penal laws but in India death penalty is still in practice, but we also pronounce death sentence in rare of rarest cases as held in the leading judgment of the honorable supreme court "bachan singh vs state of Punjab". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study discusses the issue of offence to sensibilities as possible grounds for limiting freedom of expression. This issue is constantly brought to the public agenda, as for example, in the limitation imposed in Israel on the playing of Richard Wagner's music by Israeli orchestras. The proposed thesis is as follows: The Offence to Sensibilities Argument will take precedence over free expression only in cases where profound and direct damage is inflicted upon the sensibilities of individuals or a target group, undermining their dignity, especially when the speaker's intentions are to offend the target individual/group under circumstances in which the individual or target group cannot avoid. In every case, it is incumbent upon those who wish to limit expression to examine the content of the expression and its manner, the duration and intensity of the expression, the frequency of the offence, the speaker's intentions, the circumstances and the likely consequences of the offensive speech. Psychologists should be consulted concerning the severity of each offence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THE ARTICLE PRESENTS THEORETICAL AND JUDICIAL PRACTICE ASPECTS CONCERNING THE OFFENCE OF MANSLAUGHTER AS GOVERNED BY THE PROVISIONS OF THE CURRENT ROMANIAN CRIMINAL CODE. AFTER A SHORT INTRODUCTORY PART ARE PRESENTED: LEGAL CONTENT, PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS, CONSTITUENT CONTENT, FORMS, MODALITIES AND PENALTIES GOVERNED BY ROMANIAN CRIMINAL LAW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tax evasion is the most widespread national and international economic crime and occurs by avoiding, in bad faith, the payment of taxes or by changing the information to be reported to the authorities, all of these with the purpose of diminishing the revenues and profits or of artificially increasing the expenses. By tax evasion, the natural or legal person has a direct intention to commit the offence, because he/she plans it and pursues to obtain a profit from this activity. The fight against tax fraud is becoming a priority in Romania, because tax evasion has an impact on the public services, it fraudulently appropriates public funds and delays the economic growth. This paper tries to indicate the causes of this type of offence, and also methods, statistics and prevention measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the end of the 1980s in India, groups associated with various political parties, religions, regions and castes have come to regularly attack artists and damage artworks. Straining relations between religious communities concomitant with the decline of secularism – as a practice if not as a norm – in Indian politics provides the context for such competitive and violent proclamations of 'hurt sentiments.' However, this paper focuses on the complementary explanations of how the rule of law has also come to not appear as a straightforward 'solution' to this 'problem.' It shows the fragility of the fundamental right of free speech and expression in India today, where the shifting legal regime is hardly an assurance against the concrete alternatives of lethal threats and violence, which have legitimized, over time, as Pratap Bhanu Mehta has argued, 'the insidious idea that it was not the state's job to protect freedom, but to discipline that freedom in the name of some conception of propriety' (Mehta, 2012). To be sure, the focus of this paper is not to slam vigilant, and even, as many would argue, necessary laws and regulatory bodies, but to explore how the legal reasoning and workings might have actually come to be a rational choice for offence-takers, to develop theoretically and apply practically in their endeavours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper gives the first academic description of RoastMe – a prevalent, but hitherto unexplored, humorous practice formed on Reddit and re-posted on various social media, notably Imgur – in the light of the relevant socio-pragmatic literature on humour and (im)politeness. Taking into account the emic perspective of the RoastMe community of practice (as opposed to recurrent etic "cyberbullying" metapragmatic evaluations), RoastMe is conceptualised as an online humorous activity which, similar to the traditional roast (including the celebrity roast genre), is centred on ritual insults addressed to the target who has agreed to be roasted for the sake of humour. RoastMe is enclosed within a humorous frame (regardless of whether or not insults are truthful, i.e. communicate roasters' true beliefs) and thrives on its community members' unbounded creativity. Roasting comments can also be seen as mock impoliteness, constituting utterances that display overtly pretended face-threat, while being oriented towards amusement and solidarity-building among anonymous users. However, even though the online community of practice conceives RoastMe as an innocuous activity, the possibility of roastees' taking, while not necessarily claiming, offence cannot be ruled out. Highlights • A cutting-edge description of RoastMe, an offshoot of the traditional roast. • RoastMe is a social media practice enclosed in a humorous frame and based on ritual insults. • RoastMe insults targeting a roastee are inherently creative and amusement-orientated. • RoastMe insults present mock impoliteness, geared towards solidarity. • RoastMe should not programmatically cause offence but may be considered offensive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international convention on terrorist financing and Western-backed international organisations have found the financing of terrorism serious enough to criminalise it as an independent offence. While the offence has a preparatory nature, its criminalisation as an independent offence expands the boundary of criminal liability beyond existing notions of criminalisation. This article examines the justifiability of the terrorist financing offence with regard to the principles and values on which liberal criminal law is based. Liberal criminal law has been chosen because the idea of the criminalisation of terrorist financing was issued and developed mainly by Western liberal States. The article narrowly discusses the issue in the context of Anglo-American criminal law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two facts related to the fighting strategy adopted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) following the first Israeli-Arab War of 1948 are well accepted. The first is that after the war, the IDF adopted a ‘defensive-offensive’ strategy. The second is that in 1953 this strategy was replaced by an ‘offensive-defensive’ strategy. Over the years, researchers have suggested several explanations for this change. However, opinions remain divided. This article argues that although the ‘offensive-defensive’ strategy was preferred particularly by officials in the planning and operational departments, they reluctantly chose the ‘defensive-offensive’ strategy for economic and strategic reasons. Only a few years later, however, after re-evaluating the premises on which the ‘defensive-offensive’ strategy had been based, the IDF switched gears and returned to the strategy it had wanted from the beginning: to strike first. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) as a strategy carries conflicting standpoints for the bearer and the non-bearer of BMD. For a bearer of BMD, it is an effort to protect the humankind from a nuclear holocaust and a move that may eventually lead towards disarmament, whereas, for non-bearer, the deployment of BMD by a rival state is likely to intensify the arms race and increase risk of nuclear strike due to the vulnerability of a non-bearer. The nonbearer of BMD in such circumstances would opt for offensive strategies that may permit it to penetrate the BMD shield so that the rival becomes vulnerable and strategic stability prevails. Against this backdrop, the article discusses fragility of BMD within the ambit of primacy of offense over defence, while linking the historical experiences of the Cold War with the present day perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the paper is to clarify the situations when deviations from the rules of good conduct in scientific research are considered to be offenses. The paper, in the first part, it is focused on the idea of offence and it definition, because it is important to define this term in order to compare deviations and offences. In the second part, the paper refers to those situations when the deviations from the rules of good conduct in scientific research can become offences according to the Criminal Code. In addition, in the paper are analyse the regulation from art. 21 Law no. 206/2004 and some examples of situations when deviations can became offences. To complete this picture frame in conclusions we propose some changes of the current legislations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bourdieusian research demonstrates that judgements about 'bad taste' are in great part determined by negation. In seeking to extend the reach of sociological research beyond this relational account, this article theorizes the ethical and aesthetic dimensions of evaluative judgements. First, with reference to value-rational social action, it considers the ethical dimension. Relatedly, it draws attention to debates concerning the limits of what can be artistically represented and what offends ethical sensibilities. Second, in considering the aesthetic dimension, the article theorizes an account of evaluative judgement situated in the everyday: one that pays close attention to how it is formed at a micro-level on an individual and collective basis. This attention to the interaction between individuals and objects, largely neglected in Bourdieu's analysis, enables us to zoom in to see that 'bad taste' is a changeable notion and the 'bad' can become 'good' through evaluative reworking that challenges existing interpretations and evaluations. By performing the difficult task of identifying and distinguishing the ethical and aesthetic dimensions of evaluative judgement, the article argues that we can gain a multi-layered understanding of what and how people value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different types of spatial analyses and visualizations can be used in the police practice for investigation, crime prediction, and planning of police forces. The public availability of crime data is one of the often discussed issues for the police, general public and academia. The efforts to open police data are rooted in the philosophy of the so-called ‘community policing’. In this article, we demonstrate the possibilities of spatial analysis and cartographic visualization of open crime data. We provide two use cases based on the data gathered by the municipal police in Pardubice, Czech Republic. We investigate the impact of gambling sites on crime offence intensity and found that gambling sites considerably influence their surroundings within 100 m. The other use case is focused on traffic offences caused by cyclists. We extracted hot spots of these offences and tried to identify their causation, since the police should not only carry out repressive measures, but also strive to eliminate the causes (e.g. add cycle lanes, bike paths, underpasses or overpasses). Different types of cartographic visualization have been designed and discussed for both use cases. The advantages, limitations and future development of the described concepts are commented on in the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The rights and obligations of convicts while serving prison sentences in „penitentiary” are regulated by strict rules. Every failure to comply with the law and bylaws is grounds for disciplinary responsibility of the convict, which also means that in the end disciplinary measures will be ordered. For a disciplinary measure to be ordered against the convict, it is necessary to ascertain the truth - that the convict has broken the rules of behavior while serving his prison sentence. To ascertain the truth in a disciplinary procedure in a penitentiary, based on current regulation, is an extremely difficult task for the disciplinary commission, the prison warden or the operating judge. In this work the authors point out the difficulties of ascertaining the truth in disciplinary procedures against convicts in a „penitentiary” because of the existence of „doubt” whether he has committed a serious or mild disciplinary offence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In September 2012, a video entitled ‘Innocence of Muslims’ was uploaded to YouTube. The fourteen-minute clip featured actors playing the Prophet Muhammad, his companions and wives, and while production values were amateurish, aided by airings on Egyptian national television and others elsewhere, the video went viral. Recalling the Rushdie affair two decades beforehand, angry protests took place across the world. In the UK, the response from Muslims was markedly different. This article traces the ‘Innocence of Muslims’ affair from the eyes of those involved in formal Muslim-governmental relations. It explores what the new controversy tells us about the representation of Muslim communities in the process of political engagement since the Rushdie affair. It considers the experiential disconnect that exists between Muslim and political actors in contemporary Britain before exploring three important political factors – the cultural, representational and geopolitical – that influence and impact upon Muslim–governmental relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of the paper is to present the offences and penalties that can be instituted as a result of actions performed by the internal audit. On the other hand, we sought to highlight the mechanisms used for the ascertainment of offences and the establishment of the corresponding penalties. For this purpose, we started from the basic concepts related to the offence and penalty problems in the internal audit missions and we continued with their application at practical level in the accomplishment of an actual audit mission. We also tried to highlight the role and place of the offence and of the penalty respectively in the process of exercising the internal audit activity, and also the finality at the level of entities and persons responsible for the improper exercise of the designated actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients with an intellectual disability (ID) and offending histories constitute a challenging clinical group. The present study examined commonalities and differences in demographic, diagnostic and offence characteristics in patients with and without intellectual disabilities who were either convicted for violent or sexual offences and who resided in mandated care in the Netherlands.Method: We compared 165 offenders with an ID to 249 offenders without an ID. We compared both groups by type of offence (i.e., sexual versus violent offence) using Mann-Whitney U-test or independent samples t-tests for continuous variables and Chi-square tests for categorical variables.Results: In general, forensic patients with an ID were younger at admission (U=357, z = -12.668, p < .001), had more prior convictions for violent offences (χ2(1)= 6.175, p = .013) and more prevalent diagnoses of substance abuse disorders (χ2(1)= 9.266, p = .002) than those without an ID. Similar results were found for patients with IDs with sexual offence histories.Conclusion: A clear understanding of distinct characteristics of forensic patients with intellectual disabilities is crucial in understanding (sexual) violent behavior in this population as it mayassistclinicians in prioritizing interventionstrategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic freedom is an important good, but it comes with several responsibilities. In this commentary we seek to do two things. First, we argue against Francesca Minerva's view of academic freedom as presented in her article 'New threats to academic freedom' on a number of grounds. We reject the nature of the absolutist moral claim to free speech for academics implicit in the article; we reject the elitist role for academics as truth-seekers explicit in her view; and we reject a possible more moderate re-construction of her view based on the harm/offence distinction. Second, we identify some of the responsibilities of applied ethicists, and illustrate how they recommend against allowing for anonymous publication of research. Such a proposal points to the wider perils of a public discourse which eschews the calm and careful discussion of ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: There is a lack of detailed information on the role of substance use disorders (SUD) as a substantial factor in offences and treatment in forensic psychiatric patients. The aim of this study was to get a better understanding of these specifics. Clinical records of 193 male patients admitted to a Dutch forensic psychiatric hospital were scrutinized on anamnestic, diagnostic and risk assessment data. One of the central findings was that the prevalence of SUDs was high. Patients with an SUD had a more extensive criminal history, unstable and deviant lifestyle and higher risk of violent behavior than patients without a substance use disorder. No differences were found in duration of treatment, aggressive incidents and leave. Another important finding was that a distinction could be made between patients with substance use as a primary criminogenic risk factor and patients with substance use as a secondary risk factor. Although substance use is identified as a general risk factor, this study supports the idea of sub categorization of patients with an SUD and emphasizes the need for a different treatment approach. Further study is needed to identify specific treatment approaches, based on more differentiated profiles of these patients. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Freedom of speech has been essential in building democracy in Lithuania after regaining its independence. Exercise of the constitutional freedom of expression (Article 25 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania) within the societies following constitutional values is the major factor shaping the political will of citizens. Wide-ranging, all round public discussion about all public interest issues is possible only when it is subject to due freedom of information. In indirect democracy, strong disseminator of information acting between citizens and the Parliament able to create the field for discussion and mutual impact is a necessity. Significance, quality, all-roundedness of discussion on all public interest issues is the major factor determining correct choices of citizens and politicians. Restriction of freedom of expression and information or prohibition of free search, receipt and dissemination thereof shall be considered as subjugation of a human being as a free and autonomous creature. Freedom of speech is a highly important feature in building democracy. The media in Lithuania during two decades of democracy building has actively made the use of freedom of self-expression. The courts have solved a lot of case-laws, where freedom of speech, honour, dignity and private life were at stake. The Parliament, the Constitutional Court, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasburg, the Government, the Inspector of Journalist Ethics and the Commission on Journalists and Publishers Ethics, the courts of Lithuania -- all institutions took part in the process of defining freedom of speech and its limits in Lithuania during two decades of its independence. The purpose of this publication is to identify if the case-law of Lithuania's courts in balancing the contradictions between the freedom of self-expression and personal dignity, honour and private life is in line with the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, jurisprudence of the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg. Defining if the case-law of Lithuania's courts are in line with the jurisprudence of the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg, the research is concentrated on legal tests applied in the case-law of freedom of speech -- distinguishing between public and private figures, estimating disseminated information as facts or value-judgments, freedom of speech decriminalization problems, compensation in respect of pecuniary damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To study the association between sexual orientation and self-rated health, including trust, offence, threat of violence, and violence. Design/setting/participants/measurement: The 2008 Public Health Survey in Skåne is a cross-sectional postal questionnaire study. A total of 28,198 persons aged 18–80 years responded (55%). Logistic regressions analysed the association between sexual orientation and self-rated health. Results: 27.4% of all men and 30.0% of all women rated their health as poor. Poor self-rated health was significantly more prevalent in higher age, among immigrants, people with lower education, low social support, low trust, experience of being offended, experience of threat of violence and violence, and bisexual and other orientation. Homosexual and bisexual men and women had higher age-adjusted odds ratios of having felt offended compared to heterosexual respondents. The odds ratios of low trust, threat of violence (men), and experience of violence (women) were significant for respondents with bisexual orientation but not for respondents with homosexual orientation. In the age-adjusted model, no significant association was observed between homosexual orientation and poor self-rated health among women. All other associations between sexual orientation and health were significant in the age-adjusted model but non-significant in the multiple models. Conclusions: Associations between sexual orientation and health disappear after multiple adjustments including trust and experience of offence, threat of violence, and violence. The study suggests that the group with bisexual orientation seems to be more exposed to low social capital (trust), threat of violence, and violence than the group with homosexual orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this study was to examine the predictors of offender adolescents' problem and prosocial behaviors. Among the predictor variables individual characteristics (anger and impulsivity of adolescent), friends' behaviors (deviant and prosocial), and maternal monitoring and rejection were examined. It was also aimed to determine whether individual characteristics of adolescents have the mediational role in the relations between maternal characteristics and friends' problem and prosocial behaviours. Participants were 157 offender adolescents from penal institutions in Ankara. The results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that problem behaviors of offender adolescents were positively predicted by maternal rejection and friends' problem behavior. The offender adolescents' prosocial behaviors were negatively predicted by maternal rejection and positively predicted by friends' prosocial behaviors. A series of regression analyses and Sobel test results revealed that individual characteristics of adolescent mediated three relations. Firstly, impulsivity had a mediational role between maternal rejection and friends' deviant behaviors. Secondly, anger control mediated the relationship of maternal monitoring with deviant friends, and lastly anger control had a mediator role between maternal monitoring and prosocial friends. The findings indicated that parents and friends have important contributions both on problem and prosocial behaviors of adolescents. And also temperamental characteristics of adolescent have partially explained the relations between parenting and friend selection of offender adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Law no.297/2004 regarding the Capital market is a non-criminal law which regulates a special area - the Capital market and its financial instruments - but in order to ensure the unity in settling the aspects related to the Capital market, it has been necessary to include criminal provisions. Thus, the lawmaker used a distinctive legislative technique from the criminal rules, by comprising some divided provisions, which fill out with the content of other provisions from the law text expressly mentioned. This legislative technique has been criticized by the doctrine, being considered to give raise to confusions. Still, in the content of the indictment provisions comprised in title X of the law, we can identify the common constituent elements of the offences regarding the Capital market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maritime Act Amendments of 2008 created a legal basis for establishing a vessel traffic monitoring and managment system (VTMIS). The VTMIS is established according to the EU Directive 2002/59/ establishing a Community vessel traffic monitoring and information system. The system should help to enhancing the safety and efficiency of maritime traffic. In this article the authors pay special attention to one task that fall within the scope of VTMIS - monitoring the safety of navigation. The authors analyze what is its role in determining the criminal liability for the breach of international and national safety of navigation provisions and standards in the coastal area of Croatia. They conclude that data provided by AIS system and other relevant equipment can be used as evidence in criminal proceedings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background This was a quantitative study to measure the prevalence low self-esteem in an intellectually disabled forensic population. The dependent variables used were the adapted six-item Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the adapted Evaluative Beliefs Scale. It had a repeated measures design with independent variables including consideration of differences between the low and medium secure parts of the service, the influences of types of offences and the effects of disrupted childhood attachments. Methods Forty-four male clients, with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities, were recruited. Data were collected by one key researcher during individual research interviews using the two structured instruments to measure self-esteem. Further data were then obtained from routinely recorded clinical information held on the hospital computer system. Results Unexpectedly, the majority of clients scored as having moderate or high self-esteem on both self-esteem measures. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between the two scales. In all, 64% of the population studied had committed either sexual offences or fire setting offences. Contrary to expectation, those who had evidence of disrupted attachments had slightly higher self-esteem than those who had not experienced disrupted attachments. Conclusions Self-esteem is a complex personal concept with many influencing factors. Cognitive behaviour therapy has a unique role in realising and overcoming negative core beliefs and feelings of low self-worth. The offence types concurred with previously noted patterns of offending within the intellectually disabled forensic population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objectives of the research aim at examining the deposition of the European legislative act in terms of their implementation by the Romanian judicial authorities, of the national legislative act, a comparative examination, critical comments and proposals de lege ferenda. This paper is the continuation of others made in the field of judicial cooperation in criminal matters in the European Union, especially in the activity of recognition and enforcement of judicial decisions emanating from another Member State. The Results of the study focuses in particular on the possibility of executing the provisions of European legislative act by the Romanian judicial authorities, the identification of flaws in the Romanian and European legislation. The paper is useful for teachers, master students, practitioners and all those who wish to improve their knowledge in this area particularly important and sensitive at the same time. The scientific contribution of the work results from the critical examination of the depositions of both normative acts and the formulated proposals de lege ferenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The imminent entrance into force of the new Criminal Code — adopted by Law 286/17 July 2009, published in the Official Gazette No 510/24 July 2009 — brings along a series of modifications regarding the offences against military order and discipline. Today, these offences are grouped in Section I of Chapter 1 (called "Offences committed by militaries") of Title X "Offences against Romania's capacity of defence". The actual Criminal Code settles six such offences, namely: unjustified absence (Art 331 C. Code), desertion (Art 332 C. Code), transgression of orders (Art 333 C. Code), and insubordination (Art 334 C. Code), hitting a superior (Art 335 C. Code) and hitting an inferior (Art 336 C. Code). The new Code does not particularize offences against military order and discipline. They are included in a single chapter - "Offences committed by militaries", part of Title IX of the new regulation, called "Offences against the capacity of combat of military forces". In this chapter are also found the offences committed on battlefield, without being emphasized in a section, as it is in the actual Code. Also in the chapter called "Offences committed by militaries" are stated three offences new for the Romanian criminal legislation, namely: leaving the orders or command, constraint of a superior and abuse of authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined aggression and offending motivation. Participants were 206 adult male prisoners. All completed the Aggression Motivation Questionnaire [Ireland, ], the Offending Motivation Questionnaire [Gudjonsson and Sigurdsson, ], the Multidimensional Anger Inventory [Siegel, ] and the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding [Paulhus, ]. It was predicted that aggression motivation would separate into two factors, one reflecting proactive aggression and the other reactive aggression. It was predicted that aggression motives would vary by offence type. It was also predicted that the offending motives identified in previous research (i.e. Excitement, Compliance, Provocation and Financial) would be reflected in this study. Levels of anger and social desirability were also examined for their relationship with aggression and offending motives. Results indicated that aggression motivation separated into four core motives; protection, social recognition, perceived positive outcome, and pleasure. Violent and nonviolent offenders were found to differ in their underlying motives for recent acts of aggression. Anger was related to all core aggression motives, whereas social desirability was related only to some. Offending motives were similar to previous research although some differences were found. Results are discussed with reference to their theoretical and clinical implications. Aggr. Behav. 37:278-288, 2011. ©2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt's Whether We Should Proceed Slowly [Ob man gemachfaren soil] in 1524 was no best seller, and the work is often overlooked today. However, its author was a prolific publisher, especially of German tracts, in the early sixteenth century. His influence upon other so-called radical reformers remains yet to be measured adequately. Despite the fact that Gemach was written shortly before Karlstadt's expulsion from Electoral Saxony, its thesis resonated strongly with other writers who were disenchanted with the trajectory of reforms in Wittenberg after 1522. A careful analysis of Karlstadt's argumentation reveals a rigorous reliance upon Old Testament texts, and it represents the development of a position that holds the Christian congregation responsible for implementing reforms in worship that are mandated in God's commands. As Karlstadt's response to Luther's Invocavit Sermons (preached in March 1522 and published outside Wittenberg in 1523), Gemach shows what Gordon Rupp called Karlstadi's 'best polemical writing.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis in this paper centres on an email exchange between a lecturer and a student at the University of Auckland which resulted in the dismissal of that lecturer. This dismissal gave rise to significant controversy, both off- and online, as to whether the email itself was simply “intemperate” and “angry”, or more seriously “offensive” and “racist”. Through a close analysis of the interpretations of the emails by the lecturer and student, as well as online evaluations made on blogs and discussion boards, it becomes apparent that the inherent discursivity of evaluations of impoliteness arises not only from different perceptions of norms, but also from the ways in which commentators position themselves vis-à-vis these evaluations. It also emerges that the relative level of discursive dispute is mediated by the technological and situational characteristics of the CMC medium in which these evaluations occurred. It is concluded that research into various forums of online interaction provides a unique window into the inherent variability and argumentativity of perceptions of offensive behaviour, as a public record of discursive disputes surrounding particular alleged violations of norms of appropriateness can be (re)scrutinized in such forums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, the way basketball fast breaks are executed was analysed, while determining how the best results sea obtained and studying the differences between the men's and women's game. Utilizing observational methodology, a total of 294 fast breaks were analysed from 30 games played at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Eighteen of the games were high-level men's games and 12 were high-level women's games. Statistically significant differences were observed between the men's and the women's game in the following aspects with regard to fast breaks: (1) duration, (2) completion area, and (3) shot opposition. For men, some dependence relationships were found between the fast break result and the following variables: duration, completion area, and opposition to its completion. For women, the results revealed a weak association between the fast break result and the opposition to its completion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several points of view about the term "material object of the offence" have been explained in the doctrine, which has led to the birth of a series of categories of this concept as general object, general social object, generic social object, direct object (immediate), juridical object, material object, etcetera. The above mentioned terms are frequently used, by different authors with different meanings. In an objective approach of offence it was considered that its structure consists primarily of a system of relationships between the subject and the object, between which interdependence arises, interdependence which marks a unity and which materialises into a deed. From the point of view of subjective law, the individual will of a person who always longs for an object stands out. A present-day re-evaluation of this concept is necessary under the circumstances in which there are several formal infractions which are void of a material object but which can nevertheless generate material consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]